A week of learning some lessons

July 28, 2013

It was a week of learning experiences for me, including one lesson learned the hard, wet way.

Don't leave your car windows down, and don't leave the sunroof wide open, especially if your car is one place, and you are somewhere else with the keys.

Our weather is not to be trusted as this summer is proof positive.

One minute it's sunny and nice. The next minute it's not so sunny and nice.

It can start to rain really, really, really hard, a harsh discovery to make when you get the call and consider the error of your ways.

"Mom, where are the car keys so I can put your windows up?" my daughter asked innocently, assuming her wise and wonderful mama has the sense to have an extra set of car keys somewhere close at hand.

Oooopsie. Big oooopsie.

The other lesson is that you can't beat a storm home to intervene, no matter how fast you drive, no matter how hard you pray.

We tried that, arriving just in time for a rainbow. And a very, very wet car. Not quite the pot of gold we were going for.

There's not a whole lot you can do at that point aside from getting out the towels and making the best of a wet situation.

One thing I can say with certainty, though.

Wet car would not be a good candle scent.

Better Half has such a wonderful sense of humor.

It's not so much a lesson I learned this past week as it was a reaffirmation.

I was in the bathroom when he walked by and casually asked me what I was doing.

"I'm powdering my nose," I offered the explanation.

He politely offered to give me my space and plenty of time to go with it.

"That's a big job," he said with just a hint of sarcasm.

Animals were in the wrong place when I was behind the wheel of a car this past week.

Within two days, I had three experiences of animals nearly meeting their demise because they were on the road at the same time as I was.

First, there was the big squirrel in the middle of a not-highly- traveled road that despite my beeps and then verbal appeal to "Get out of the way, Mr. Squirrel!!" seemed in no particular hurry to move over and onward.

Is this squirrel nuts or what, I'm thinking. Finally the squirrel moves, and all is well.

Then on the highly traveled Sunset Boulevard, two little dogs paying no attention at all decide to cross the street - right in front of me.

The dogs miraculously made it across the street unscathed although my tires lost a layer of rubber in the process of coming to a screeching halt.

Then on my early morning commute to work, I do not on a Steubenville street expect to have three deer run in front of me, but this was my week.

Thank God there was a scare but no bloodshed.

Of course, my tires lost another layer of rubber in the stop quickly process.

But, hey, at least my car's dry.

(Kiaski, a resident of Steubenville, is a staff columnist and features writer for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times and community editor for the Herald-Star. She can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronline.com.)